Iotum - the view from Europe

Last week, James Enck weighed in with his initial take on Iotum. James is with Daiwa Securities, and his blog � EuroTelcoblog � is one of the best ways to follow the EU telco scene, especially for things IP. It�s great to see Iotum getting some international attention, and it�s quite interesting to see the European perspective, which tends to be more grounded than a lot what comes from this side of the Atlantic.

I�m posting about this directly on my blog, as his blog does not allow for comments. I�ll forward a link of this post to James, and we�ll soon see if the thread has legs.

Basically, James sees Iotum�s Relevance Engine as a �refinement of presence management�, which he sees as a good thing � agreed. He laments not being able to beta test it � I can�t either, so we�re on the same page there too!

James sees how Iotum could be the �essential glue� for �multi-service communications� � assuming this is what the consumer wants. If so, the result should be a �satisfying experience�, as opposed to �another form of technoppression�. I love that the latter term � to me, it implies anything built around the needs of the service provider as opposed to the subscriber. That�s exactly what Iotum is focused on � providing a higher level of intelligence that the end user controls, as he or she really is the best judge of how to optimize their communications needs.

I agree with James that we have to assume this IS what the consumer wants. I think it�s safe to say this will hold true for a lot of people � but not all. No doubt there will be others who could benefit from this capability, but choose not to. I�m sure there are plenty of people who just don�t want to be this organized and efficient � just on principal � it�s not their nature � or any number of other reasons.

However, as the Internet generation supplants the PC generation, there will be an army of people with countless ways of being reached, but lack the ability to effectively manage this across all their devices and networks. That�s certainly a problem crying for a solution, and as James concludes, the Relevance Engine is off to �an impressive start�.